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Stability of epibiotic communities on the metal surfaces of shallow-water wrecks in the maltese islands

  • Perla Galatolo
  • Patrick J. Schembri

The epibiotic assemblages on three wrecks in Maltese waters were studied by taking photoquadrats on the metal hull of each wreck, and on nearby natural hard substrata for comparison. The taxon richness and cover area of the colonising organisms was quantified, and organisms were classified into functional groups based on structural features. Bare patches of hull surface were present on all wrecks and the epibiota occurred in a mosaic of assemblages. Taxon richness was higher on the hulls than on natural substrata. It is suggested that the wrecks have a disclimax community supported by disturbances, such as uneven sloughing of the corroding metal, resulting is a mosaic of patches at different stages of succession. The natural hard substrata showed a high proportion of tall arborescent forms compared to hulls, supporting the hypothesis of the impeded development of a climatic climax community on the wrecks. NMDS ordination showed that the three wrecks were distinguishable from each other based on the relative cover of the different functional groups.

  • Keywords:
  • Disclimax,
  • Succession,
  • Infralittoral Rock,
  • Colonisation,
  • Functional groups,
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Perla Galatolo

University of Malta, Malta - ORCID: 0009-0000-3385-1002

Patrick J. Schembri

University of Malta, Malta - ORCID: 0000-0002-6723-7198

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  • Anno di pubblicazione: 2024
  • Pagine: 208-217

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  • Anno di pubblicazione: 2024

Informazioni sul capitolo

Titolo del capitolo

Stability of epibiotic communities on the metal surfaces of shallow-water wrecks in the maltese islands

Autori

Perla Galatolo, Patrick J. Schembri

Lingua

Italian

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0556-6.18

Opera sottoposta a peer review

Anno di pubblicazione

2024

Copyright

© 2024 Author(s)

Licenza d'uso

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Licenza dei metadati

CC0 1.0

Informazioni bibliografiche

Titolo del libro

Tenth International Symposium "Monitoring of Mediterranean Coastal Areas: Problems and Measurement Techniques"

Sottotitolo del libro

Livorno (Italy) 11th-13th June 2024

Curatori

Laura Bonora, Marcantonio Catelani, Matteo De Vincenzi, Giorgio Matteucci

Opera sottoposta a peer review

Anno di pubblicazione

2024

Copyright

© 2024 Author(s)

Licenza d'uso

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Licenza dei metadati

CC0 1.0

Editore

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0556-6

eISBN (pdf)

979-12-215-0556-6

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979-12-215-0557-3

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Monitoring of Mediterranean Coastal Areas: Problems and Measurement Techniques

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2975-0288

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